Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings’ mega hit series of books became Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings’ mega hit series of films which then became Harry Potter, J.K. Rowlings’ world domination campaign.

As one might guess, Harry, Hermione and Ron stomped a mud hole in the competition and have spent the last 4 weeks marching it dry all across the globe.

Warner Brothers estimates a $25.5 million debut, across some 4,200 venues in China, for the series finale which, from now on, will officially be referred to as “Harry Potter and the Holy Jeebus They’re Making a Lot of Money!”.

Marry an epic opening in China with a $4.2 million weekend in the UK (Just under $100 million total) a $4 million weekend in France ($55.5 million total) a $4.75 million weekend in Japan ($80 million total) and a $4.3 million weekend in Germany ($69 million total) and a grand total of $791 million in international markets ($342.8 million total in the U.S., through August 7th) and you have the third highest grossing move of all time…A mere 4 weekends after it was released.

HOLY CRAP!

At this point, only 2 movies in history have higher gross sales than Harry Potter and the Holy Jeebus They’re Making a Lot of Money. Those films are Titanic, in at #2 with $1.84 billion and Avatar, in at #1 with $2.78 billion.

Potter, running a total of $1.13 billion will almost certainly bump Titanic from the #2 spot and, in my opinion, has a real chance at dethroning Avatar, especially considering it hasn’t even been out for a month and we still have re-releases, DVD’s, Blu-Ray, merchandising, director’s cuts, collector’s editions, boxed sets and the unrated version where Emma Watson gets naked that have yet to hit the market.

(ok, that last one doesn’t really exist but you got all happy in the pants there for a second, didn’t you?)

As for the other contenders, I’ll round out the top 5 highest grossing films of all time with The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King in at #4 with $1.12 billion and Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man’s Chest in at #5 with a respectable $1.06 billion, neither of which are in any position to step ahead of Harry Potter and the Holy Jeebus They’re Making a Lot of Money and neither of which are nearly as good.

We’ll keep an eyeball on this and will report when and if the kids from Hogwart’s move up in the rankings. Make sure you check back!